


April Fool's Day

by Pyral



Category: Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: Gen, Pranks, everyone is a happy family, good job me, i wrote this literally years ago but ive finally gotten around to crossposting it here, preteen version of cursing (like frick), seth said i am going to cause problems on purpose and everyone else just had to nod and go with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26329135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyral/pseuds/Pyral
Summary: Just because you miss April Fool's Day because of a Society plot to end the world, that doesn't mean you have to wait until next year! (At least, according to Seth.)
Relationships: Kendra Sorenson & Seth Sorenson, Vanessa Santoro & Tanugatoa "Tanu" Dufu, Vanessa Santoro/Warren Burgess (mentioned)
Kudos: 9





	April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day had always been Seth's time to shine. He got more and more creative with the pranks every year, from classics like toothpaste in the Oreos, to more ridiculous stuff like covering Dale's truck in post it notes. It had always been his favorite holiday. And this year—he had  _ missed _ it.

"You did get to help save the world instead," Kendra said. She was busy bustling around the kitchen, putting together some cookies for Hugo to take to the dryads. "That's not too bad a tradeoff."

Seth didn't lift his head from the kitchen table and let out a groan. "I was in a dungeon at the time, Kenny. A freaking dungeon. We saved the world  _ after _ April Fool's Day."

"It's been a month since then, and now you find it in you to get upset over that?" Kendra rapped him on the head with her wooden spoon, making Seth jump.

"I know! But there were so many other things going on, it's not like I had the time to think about it!" Seth squished his cheek on the table again. "It's kinda petty, yeah," he mumbled, "but I'm really sad I missed it."

Kendra stopped mixing the ingredients together for a moment and pondered. "You could always make it up," she suggested. "A new April Fool's Day, just a little bit late."

Seth looked up. "You really think everyone's just gonna go with that?"

Kendra shrugged, and a devilish smile crossed her cheeks. "If you're going to be running around pranking them, it's not like they're going to have a choice."

Seth shot up straight in his seat and banged his hands on the table. "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh yes.  _ Yes _ . Let's do this!"

He was about to run up the stairs when Kendra grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "You have to tell them first!"

"Oh yeah. Haha. I was going to do that."

It took some time and a lot of dragging Dale away from his work, but eventually the Sorenson siblings managed to gather a family meeting in the living room. Even with all the couches and chairs, there wasn't enough sitting space for all of them, leaving Kendra perched on the arm of Tanu's chair and Seth standing in the middle of the room.

"Okay, I have a super-duper important announcement to make!" Seth waved his arms to get everyone's attention, but between Stan and Ruth discussing preserve business and Tanu and Dale exchanging info on plants, it was near impossible. Even Elise, who usually noticed when Seth was talking, was half trying to complain to Tanu about something and half screaming into a pillow.

"Need a hand,  _ angelito _ ?" Vanessa asked. She was lounging on the couch, her feet kicked up on a sleeping Warren's lap.

"Yeah—please," Seth sighed, clearly exasperated. He had gotten better with patience, but he still needed work.

Vanessa put her fingers to her lips and gave a taxi cab whistle that would've put a New Yorker to shame. Next to her, Warren jerked awake.

"Okay!" Seth clapped his hands like an excited child, clearly ignoring everyone's confused looks. "So guess what I'm doing!"

Seth quickly bounced his idea for a make-up April Fool's Day.

"I'm gonna make it... this Thursday," he finished. "That gives me—and anyone else—tomorrow to prepare. Okay love you guys bye!"

Before Stan could tell him otherwise, Seth had bolted up the stairs.

There was a moment of silence before Warren sleepily leaned back again. "I'm not sure if he's joking or not, but if he springs a single prank on me, I will  _ demolish _ him." Warren gave a grin. "I am the pranking  _ god _ ."

Vanessa snorted but didn't say anything.

—

Tanu had been having a strange day.

First it was everything in the fridge staring at him with googly eyes—that prank must've been for Dale or Ruth, since they were usually the first ones up in the mornings. Then it was waking up Vanessa, who had locked her door to keep Seth from pranking her and then slept through her many alarms. It took a lot of knocking and yelling through the door before Vanessa came stumbling out, glaring and bedhead and all. A half hour later, he and Dale had to head out to the cabin to figure out why Warren hadn't gotten up yet. Seth had tucked Warren's sheets in a way that Warren couldn't get up, and then doodled a little smiley face on Warren's forehead in pen. Apparently even the cabin wasn't safe.

Now, of course, there was this.

Tanu sighed and poked at the jello encasing his cell phone. Several other objects that had been left on his desk had been treated the same. Honestly, most surprising part was that Seth had the patience to pull this off.

Seth hadn't been seen all day, but Tanu had heard enough complaints to know he was probably shadewalking around, leaving behind nasty little tricks. Kendra, the only one who had gotten off prank-free, was lounging in the living room practicing her writing, and most of the others had either ditched the preserve for a little while or were just keeping out of Seth's way.

After a bit of digging, Tanu got out his cell phone. Seth had wrapped it in plastic wrap—that was nice, at least it meant none of his stuff was actually damaged.

7 missed calls from Vanessa. Oh, god.

Tanu quickly dialed the number and put it on speakerphone. He and Vanessa had struck up an odd sort of friendship in the past month, mostly involving cooking and complaining to each other about life, preserve business, and Warren (that last one was mostly Vanessa). She had made it clear that she didn't appreciate being made to wait for too long without at least a notice on when the next free time to talk would be.

" _ Yo, Tanu! _ " Vanessa's voice crackled over the phone. " _ I called you like a half hour ago, where were you? _ "

"Uhh..." Tanu brushed a few remaining bits of jello off his phone screen. "I was a little caught up."

" _ Hm _ ," Vanessa mused, " _ well, two things. Firstly, do you need anything from Walmart, because that's where I am right now. Secondly, Warren's on the line too, I had to patch you in, Tanu. Say hi, Warren. _ "

" _ Hi! _ " Warren yelled. Tanu could hear his voice from both the phone and downstairs, along with Kendra yelling at him to be quiet, she was thinking.

Tanu laughed. "Hi Warren, and no, I don't need anything from Walmart. Can I ask—why Walmart? The one in our area stinks, even by Walmart standards."

" _ This is the only place I can get soap in bulk. _ "

"That... sort of answers my question, but not really."

" _ Vanessa's gunning for revenge on Seth, _ " Warren explained. " _ She thought she'd get away with being not pranked, but yeah, right. He— _ "

" _ Let me explain! _ " Vanessa interrupted. " _ So I'm trying to take a shower, right? But when I get out, I don't feel clean. I had this like sticky feeling—like when you have gum or something. So I took another shower. No dice. I figured maybe it's just the shower near my room, so I used the one downstairs. Nada. So finally I unscrewed the shower head to figure it out, and Seth had put a god damn hard candy in there! _ "

" _ I'm sure you smell wonderful, _ " Warren joked.

" _ I don't even smell like candy, _ " Vanessa muttered bitterly. " _ My pride is hurt. I'm getting revenge. _ "

"That's... a terrible prank for him to pull." Tanu finally managed to get his stapler out of the jello.

" _ You're distracted _ ," Vanessa noted. " _ What're you doing? _ "

Tanu quickly explained the jello issue. Warren promptly burst into laughter.

" _ Dude! That's awful! Ness, I'm sorry, but I think Tanu has more of a right to complain _ ," Warren choked out.

" _ Man. Yeah. Is that why you weren't picking up? That's fair _ ."

Tanu snorted. "Yeah. Warren, I know you're downstairs, get your butt up here and help me with this."

" _ Sure!... though I have a question for you. _ "

Tanu hesitated. "Your tone worries me."

" _ It should! I'm helping Ness get revenge—no way in hell am I going to let Seth be the undisputed prank king. You want in? _ "

Tanu thought about Vanessa and her bulk pack of soap, then lightly poked his pencils, each of which had been individually encased in jello.

"I'm in."

—

Kendra had gotten off lucky with Seth—due to the fact that they shared a room, they had agreed not to prank each other this April Fool's Day. There was one upside about sharing a room with her brother.

She hadn't seen Seth all day, except for the one time in the morning when he popped out of the shadows and scared the living daylights out of her. He had just stopped by to say hello, apparently. And to tell her not to take a shower. Her skin care routine was going to go to hell, but she listened.

So now finding Seth laying down over the stairs in front of the closed attic door, trying to poke his phone underneath the gap between the door and the floor, wasn't too surprising. He looked completely focused on his task.

"Please tell me you aren't trying to prank me," Kendra said.

Seth jerked up and hit his fingers on the door. "Frick—ow!" He curled up and grabbed his fingers. "Ow... hi Kendra."

"Hi."

A beat of silence passed.

"Ugh." Seth propped himself up and shook his hand, tucking his phone back into his pocket. "No, I'm not trying to prank you. We made a promise."

"Good, because I'll beat you up if you do. Or I'll get Vanessa to. What are you doing?"

Seth grinned and rubbed his hands together like a mad scientist. "Well, sister dearest, I think Warren, Vanessa, and Tanu left a prank for me, and my phone camera can't see it."

"Really?" Kendra stooped down and tried to look under the door. "Everything looks normal. You sure?"

"Definitely." Seth started ticking things off on his fingers as he talked. "Vanessa had a whole lot of stuff from the store, she and Warren were talking and giggling about something in a very prank-planning way, and Tanu had this huge bucket and refused to tell me what it was for. He's a bad liar. Kinda suspicious, if you ask me."

"Yeah, a little." Kendra lightly tapped the door, but luckily nothing happened.

"Plus, Warren just came out of our room saying he was just returning a couple of highlighters he borrowed from you. Did he borrow any highlighters?"

Kendra's head shot up. "He  _ didn't _ ."

"Aha!" Seth snapped his fingers. "I knew it."

"So now we can't go inside without falling into a prank," Kendra sighed. "That's great."

Seth sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I didn't think you'd end up facing that much. Pranking someone in their room in the middle of the day is hard. I didn't think anyone would try."

"It's okay, you can't know what everyone is going to do." Kendra sat down on the stairs, and Seth soon joined her.

There were several minutes of silence before Kendra spoke.

"I'm assuming you're planning something."

Seth blinked. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Your face gets this... look," Kendra waved her hands a bit in a failed attempt to illustrate her point.

"Hmm." Seth leaned forward on his knees. "I gotta work on that. But yeah, I'm thinking."

"...of?"

"How to get one of them to fall into their own trap." Seth tapped his chin. "Did you leave one of the windows unlocked?"

"Yeah. I always do. It's not like the fairies can get in, you know."

"Warren is downstairs, right?"

"He should be."

"I've got it!" Seth shot up, a smile on his face and his hands on his hips like a superhero.

"Oh no," Kendra said.

Seth grasped Kendra by the shoulders. "Do me a huge favor," he said. "Make sure Warren is closest to the stairs, and don't freak out too bad when I start yelling."

"I'm slightly worried."

"I'll see you in a few minutes!" Seth dashed down the stairs, his clothes already melting into the shadows.

There wasn't much else to do but find Warren, so that was what Kendra did. Warren was talking with Vanessa and Tanu in the living room, with the third looking slightly nervous and the other two looking excited.

Kendra crossed her arms. "I don't appreciate you guys setting up a prank in the attic," she said.

Warren leaned back. "Oh. Sorry Kens, we thought you were out!"

"Look on the bright side, you didn't fall into it," Vanessa said. "So... how is Seth?"

"He's... uh—"

Kendra was spared from answering when a piercing scream came from the attic. All of them jumped, and Kendra hadn't even processed what was going on before Warren had dashed past her.

"Oh." Vanessa had covered her mouth, eyes wide. "Maybe that was a little mean?"

"He might've gotten soap in his eye—" Tanu mumbled. "I told you guys we could've done something else!"

They were just moving towards the stairs when a crash sounded from upstairs. Vanessa and Tanu both froze.

"I think... I think that was the prank actually going off," Vanessa said.

Kendra giggled. "I'm pretty sure Seth climbed in through the window," she said. "He wanted you guys to fall into your own prank. Congrats."

"Ohh..." Tanu dropped his head as though he had a headache.

Warren was stumbling down the stairs, one of Dale's plastic buckets in his hands. Soap dripped down his face and soaked his clothes. His eyes were scrunched shut to keep the soap out.

"Vanessa," he said, clearly trying to keep his mouth as closed as possible, "please tell me you got no-tears soap."

Vanessa didn't even hesitate in taking out her phone and snapping a picture. "I'm using this for blackmail, darling."

"I love you too, honey." Warren rubbed his eyes, but succeeded in nothing.

Seth came trotting down the stairs, perfectly fine, a terrific grin from ear to ear. He struck a pose on the landing.

"I," he declared, "am the ultimate prank king!"

—

Later that night, Seth and Kendra were lazing around in the kitchen. Stan had effectively ended April Fool's Day after the soap incident, so Seth had ended up chilling out and doodling a bit in his notebook and Kendra had been baking again. The two of them had been sitting in comfortable silence for a while. Kendra was trying to make cookies from the leftover scratch, and Seth was close to nodding off.

"That was an adventure, I suppose," Kendra said.

Seth gave a sleepy nod. "Nothing compared to our bigger adventures, but still an adventure," he agreed.

"Vanessa's still pissed. Watch your back." Kendra grinned.

With a slight smirk, Seth gave a half wave of his hand, still not bothering to open his eyes. "I'll deal with that when that comes."

"Sure. Here." Kendra dropped a couple of cookies on the table in front of Seth, prompting him to finally crack open his eyes. "Those ones came out lumpy, so you can have them."

"Sweet, thanks!" Seth picked one up. "Why'd they come out lumpy?" he asked before shoving one into his mouth.

"Well, I'm not really sure..."

Seth's face scrunched up in disgust, and he heavily swallowed.

"...probably because I put salt in them instead of sugar! Ay! Gotcha!" Kendra whirled on Seth, shooting out Seth's signature finger guns.

"No fair!" Seth whacked his hands on the table, knocking the rest of the cookies onto the floor. "We promised no pranks on each other!"

"Consider it revenge for getting a prank set up in our room," Kendra said smugly. "Keep your title as prank king, but just know that I still got you."

Seth stuck out his tongue, but he didn't argue. "You're the worst."

"So are you, you rascal." Kendra scooped up a salt cookie and bounced it off her brother's head. "Happy April Fool's Day!"


End file.
